Scott Pattison Named CQ RollCall ‘Influencer’

In its March 14 issue, CQ Weekly named NGA executive director and CEO Scott Pattison as one of its influencers, in the piece “Pattison: Capitals’ Face at the Capitol:”

Scott Pattison’s office at the National Governors Association, steps from the Capitol, places him exactly where he needs to be.

Pattison started in December as the association’s new executive director and CEO, just its third in the last 33 years.

He wants a lot of face time with representatives and senators to make it clear that he’s not lobbying Congress as a run-of-the-mill special interest, but as a partner in governing.

That hasn’t always been the way Congress has seen it. “We need to be here to keep an eye on these folks,” Pattison says. Still, he stresses that the federal government isn’t an adversary.

He is looking to “partner, collaborate, communicate and cooperate” in governing. So he is focusing on what the governors and the federal government have in common: writing laws and innovating in the policy realm. “That’s what we do, that’s what they do,” he says.